Charlton’s Diminishing Goals

So far this season Charlton have played 22 matches and scored 23 goals. The goals to games ratio, 1.05, is not impressive. Indeed it is joint 17th in the division – on a par with Bolton and Millwall. Best is Bournemouth with 2.27 goals per game. Worst is Sheffield Wednesday with 0.73 goals per game.

What is most disturbing for Charlton fans though is the way that the goals have tailed off. Only Igor Vetokele has hit the net with any regularity this season. However he hasn’t scored in over a month now and no-one else has taken over goalscoring duties. In the time since Igor last got a goal, against Reading on 8th November, only Harriott, Buyens and Cousins have scored, and they’ve only managed one each. The chart below shows how the goals have dried up.

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Charlton did start the season very well and boasted the longest unbeaten record in the division. Those early successes were largely built on being very tight defensively. Despite being in the play-off positions early on, Charlton never really dominated their opponents and victories were all by a slim margin. This meant that it has only taken a small decrease in the number of goals scored to seriously effect the number of points taken:

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It looks as though Charlton will need to do something soon to increase the number of goals scored if the season isn’t to peter-out completely.